Physics experiment activities to stimulate interest in learning physics and reasoning in high school students

Abstract

Physics experiments are accompanied by questions that challenge students in learning the topic of the center of gravity which is intended as an alternative solution to foster student interest and reasoning. This research method is classroom action research. Learning is carried out in two cycles in two different identical classes each consisting of 36 students. The improvement in cycle-2 is based on the reflection of learning cycle-1, namely the revision of the use of terms in the student worksheet and the guidelines for carrying out experimental activities to be simpler and more efficient. The implementation in cycle 2 shows that there is no more input from students regarding the unclear work to be done. The results showed that students enjoyed learning (89% cycle-1; 94% cycle-2) and felt more understanding (78% cycle-1; 86% cycle-2), expressing the inspiration they obtained (56% cycle-1; 64% cycle-2). Students stated that they preferred to study the mechanism of physics rather than solving the problem using a formula (58% cycle-1; 94% cycle-2) because they thought it was more useful. The distribution of students' reasoning scores is better than the ability to solve problems, especially students get a lot of difficulties at the problem identification stage.